Void Troubles

“I hope I went back far enough…” Twilight thought.

After having conducted quite a few experiments inside the mysterious expanse she found herself in, she could tell you it is incredibly dangerous to cast magic anywhere in it.

The energies swirling and mixing about creating a powerful energy able to turn even the most basic of fire spells into a humongous fireball capable of incinerating everything within its range.

Said fireball was still growing, encompassing the spot Twilight had been mere moments ago, and still growing, feeding off the energies within the Void itself.

How did this happen you ask? Well it began a few days ago when Twilight had uncovered a book in the ruins of the old princesses castle, written by one Star Swirl the Bearded himself.

The book had the detailings of a journal, more specifically something one would use when conducting experiments of any nature and was colored a dull grey.

It detailed the books subject matter, the Void, an endless expanse of nothingness, emptyness and overall not really a good place to nap, as well as the portal spell he had devised to get to such a place.

But Star Swirl's experiments in the Void proved to be of interest, for his detailed accounts said that every spell of a volatile nature he chose to enact within this expanse was catapulted in power levels, resulting in even basic spells turning extremely powerful and unstable.

As such, whenever he attempted to cast such spells. He would teleport to a distance he deemed safe, and observe the effects.

Often times, fireballs would grow to such enormous size that they would resemble a small sun, bolt spells would grow five times their normal size and become more unstable the more distance they traveled, and the beams she had used against Tirek came out of her horn twice the size of when she had all of the alicorns magic.

Right now however, she was completely focused on the fireball that was… still growing.

“Oh fiddlesticks…” She said while she teleported away to a safer distance. Again.

It was a pleasant surprise to find that spells without a more volatile nature like teleportation and transmutation were also empowered while in the Void, meaning she could teleport vast distances while maintaining her own stored magical energy.

That said she had only tried those two before deciding to do the fireball spell. It was slowing down a bit but still growing.

“Why is it still growing? Why are the energies even feeding it? Is there some kind of connection to magic this place has that we don’t know about? Oh this is so exciting and… maybe I should leave now.”

As Twilight came out of her reverie for learning, she noticed it had now expanded to the size of a small sun and looked about ready to explode.

She prepared the simple portal spell that would take her back home the castle and cast it, but all that came out of her horn were a few sparks.

“...Oh that’s not good.” Twilight had overexerted her energy stores and so she did the next best thing.

She ran screaming into the emptyness away from the exploding fireball.

Louise de la Valliere is many things, a noble, a mage, even if she hadn’t even managed to cast a single spell correctly yet, and a proud daughter of the Valliere house.

Right now though she was just nervous.

Today was the Familiar Summoning Ritual, the day she would prove them all wrong! She was a mage! She was a noble! She would summon something great like a dragon! Or a manticore or griffon!

Maybe not a hydra though, she knew that would end badly for everyone involved.

She was standing in the courtyard with the rest of the gathered students.
Among them was the blue-haired, quiet, petite girl that was Tabitha, her specialty in magic being the especially chilling variety.

Standing beside her was the red-haired buxom bimbo that was Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt-Zerbst known for her passionate and carefree disposition, as well as her conquests with the boys, and her fiery spells.

In the crowd was Montmorency Margarita la Fère de Montmorency along with her boyfriend, aka annoying flirting fop, Guiche de Gramont, skilled in alchemy and earth magic respectively.

Not that she was making note of them for making fun of her, that would be petty.

They had all already gone before her, and the student who had just summoned her own familiar was proceeding back to the crowd. All that was left… was her.

Colbert, a bald headed fire mage, and their teacher, with spectacles covering his eyes stepped forward and yelled to the crowd.

“Louise Valliere! It is now your time. Proceed to the summoning circle.”

Already she could hear the snickers, the jeers, the taunting by Zerbst, and here she was shaking and so very nervous.

She walked up to the summoning circle and remembered the lines given to her by her teacher.

But as she gazed at the circle she paused for the briefest moments.

Would this end in disaster? Would she be cast out of the academy? Would her family disown her if she failed?

Would… would she never be able to cast REAL magic?

Magic was the birthright for all nobles in Halkegenia, given to them by their lord Brimir to be the leaders of their society.

In truth she couldn’t care less about that, she just wanted to cast magic once in her life without it exploding in her face, without the feeling of hopeless after each failed attempt after attempt.

She also wanted a friend who appreciated that.

She began to chant the sacred words… along with her own.

“My name is Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, Pentagon of the five elemental powers, heed my summoning… bring forth my divine, powerful, beautiful and wise servant... From the very bottom of my heart heed my call!”

She raised her wand and cast the spell that would bring her familiar to her.

Then the world was filled with smoke.

“I definitely went overboard with this one! Oohhhhh I’m such an idiot! Forgetting not to overexert myself in such a dangerous place!” Thought Twilight as she ran away from the ever growing inferno that had just been a small flame fifteen minutes ago.

As she ran she tried desperately to cast the portal spell leading to her castle, only resulting in more sparks from her horn.

“Why can’t I cast it!? It shouldn’t take all that much energy!”

As she was contemplating this, she had barely noticed the green wavy oval that had appeared just ahead of her, almost taunting her to come towards it.
She realized it was a portal, and with that in mind she flew to increase her speed towards the mysterious oval. Anywhere was better than being incinerated in the Void.

The fireball had almost gotten to her before she took flight, but it didn’t matter, for the energies within finally had enough, and the miniatures sun exploded, sending waves of fire in all directions.

She was barely able to make it through the portal before the waves got to the oval, and with an audible pop, both she and the green swirling door had disappeared.

“Okay that’s it! No more Void darned experiments! At least with anything related to fire…”

She was currently aware that she was lying in patches of grass, but apparently she had taken as much smoke as she could from the Void before flinging herself into the portal, and all she could see was smoke, smoke and more smoke.

She could faintly make out some shapes and forms but it was quite difficult to make them out properly.

“Hello? Uh, thank you for opening that portal! I was in a bit of trouble! Eh heh heh…”

She tried to talk to the shapes but faintly she heard them talk in a different tongue than hers… maybe Prench?

Actually the smoke was clearing up a bit and she could faintly see a shape getting closer to her… it looked awfully familiar even…

Suddenly a huge gust of wind had blown away all the smoke that had accumulated in the area and she was greeted by a… strange sight.

It was a presumably young pink haired human, wearing one of those skirts she had seen in Canterlot high, trimmed to below her waist and a white shirt with ribbons dangling from her neck.
She wore a cape that went all the way down to her feet, and she was holding a stick that Twilight assumed to be for casting magic.

But that’s not close to what got Twilight’s attention.

As the Princess of Friendship and the Element of Magic, she is no slouch to sensing magical entities, such as the Chaotic Spirit Discord, or the Daemonic energy of Tirek.

But this human was writhing with energies of the Void.

The human herself looked to be quite startled by her appearance and looked ready to say a few words to her teacher. Before she could do that however, Twilight remembered she had taken Prench lessons when she was Celestia’s student.

“Uh… Hello there! I’m Twilight Sparkle! What’s your name?” She raised her hoof for hoof bump.

The girl stood mouth agape for several seconds.

Then she screamed.

That made Twilight scream.

There was a lot of screaming done.